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SLICKVILLE, PA

May 2003 image by author

Attractive two-family patch housing at the "model" patch of Slickville. These "model" coal towns were built by the Coal and Steel companies during the last few decades of the coal and coke company town era to provide a more pleasant and habitable community for its employees and their families. It was also supposed to placate the employees to the point that they would think they wouldn't need the UMWA.

May 2003 image by author

Slickville was one of the last coal patches to be built in Westmoreland County, Pa. The Cambria Iron Company built the town and coal mine beginning in 1916. Construction of the houses continued through 1922. Slickville was named after Edwin Slick. He was vice president of Midvale Steel Co., the parent company of Cambria Iron. Approximately 500 coal miners worked the Slickville mines in the 1920s.

May 2003 image by author

The commissary (company store) stands abandoned at Slickville, Pa. It was operated under the name Miners' Supply Company, the retail subsidiary of the coal company.

May 2003 image by author

Aside from this slate dump, there is scant evidence of the coal operations at Slickville today. After 1923 the mine operator was named Bethlehem Mines Corporation (Bethlehem Steel purchased Cambria Iron). The Slickville mines became Bethlehem Mine No. 91. The coal went to the coke ovens in Johnstown, Pa. Bethlehem closed the Slickville mines in 1943.

March 2020 image by author

Holy Ghost Orthodox Church at Slickville.